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The Winter Camp of 1863-1864

The 1863 campaigns for Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, and Mine Run exacted an immense toll upon the Army of the Potomac. Union Gen. George G. Meade deemed it vital to rest his command. War Department officials also used this opportunity to replenish ranks and bolster the arm's hemorrhaged logistical infrastructure. During the second week of December 1863, Federal troops began building a vast winter camp in Culpeper County, with headquarters operations centered on Fleetwood Hill.

Meade's headquarters tents sprawled over the hill's northern spur, a half-mile distant. The Third Corps headquarters sprang up here, on southern Fleetwood. The Third Corps tents spread out around Stevensburg, the Fifth Corps at Rappahannock Station, the Sixth Corps over northern Fleetwood, and the First Corps in and around Culpeper Court House. Three cavalry divisions established a mounted picket line that surrounded the army and extended as far north as Warrenton. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant assumed command of all United States armies and arrived here in April 1864 to accompany the Army of the Potomac on its spring 1864 campaign. On May 4, the rejuvenated and well-trained Army of the Potomac departed Fleetwood Hill forever to begin the Overland Campaign. The Wilderness waited.

"There was something fascinating about our winter city of 100,000 men. History should know that our military service did not consist entirely of being shot at, or trying to shoot the other man."
—Maj. Thomas W. Hyde, staff officer, Sixth Corps, USA

"The one thing that we suffered the most from, the hardship hardest to bear, was hunger. The scantiness of the rations was something fierce. We never got a square meal that winter. We were always hungry."
—Pvt. William M. Dame, Richmond Howitzers, From the Rapidan to Richmond (1920)

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